Chapter 12 #2
“How could you deign to visit those so far below us?” Miss Bingley spat out.
Seeing the outraged looks on the Fitzwilliams’ faces as well as Darcy’s, her brother and sister knew immediately that Caroline had made a major faux pas.
Hurst just grinned as Caroline was once again providing him with an inordinate amount of entertainment.
“Miss Bingley! How dare you, the daughter of a tradesman, equate yourself to us?” Lady Matlock asked with asperity.
“You attended that obviously useless seminary in Town, did you not?” Miss Bingley blanched but nodded, for it was the seminary and her wealth she drew on for her feeling of self-worth.
“Is the school so bad they taught you a tradesman is above a landed gentleman, one whose family has been on his land for generations?”
“It is entailed, and they have no wealth! I have a twenty-thousand-pound dowry; they have merely a thousand!” Miss Bingley tried to recover.
“You are by far the most vulgar hussy I have ever had the displeasure to meet! It is birth not money which determines social order! Well I never! To boast about your dowry openly in polite society is unconscionable!” The countess turned to a white Bingley.
“If you do not take this in hand,” Lady Elaine gestured toward Miss Bingley, “she will ruin herself and you with her.”
“I think we should rest and prepare for the ball, Mother,” Andrew suggested easily. Mrs. Hurst summoned the housekeeper to show their guests to their rooms, as her sister stood frozen.
After the guests had departed the drawing room, Mrs. Hurst returned.
“Caroline, have you learnt nothing? The Viscount set you down for the same thing not two days ago! Are you insensible? Lady Matlock is a good friend of Lady Jersey. You will never gain admittance to Almack’s now! ” Mrs. Hurst berated her sister.
“All will be well when we leave this backwater on the morrow!” Miss Bingley insisted as she started to recover her colour.
“You will write a note to Miss Bennet to inform her of our departure and send it before we leave, will you not?” Bingley asked his sister as he sat, his knees feeling decidedly weak. “I am not sure about pursuing her yet, but I do not want her to think we are abandoning her.”
“I said I will write, and I will,” Miss Bingley stated with a straight face. “I will rest now. With this unnecessary unpleasantness, Mr. Darcy did not have time to request the opening set from me, but he will.” With that, Miss Bingley swept out of the room.
“If I did not know better, I would say your sister is more than slightly delusional,” Hurst told his brother and wife.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“You are being so kind to me, Lizzy. If you knew about my shame you would not want to know me,” Georgiana lamented. The two were sitting in a corner away from the rest in the drawing room.
“You mean if I knew about Ramsgate and Wickham?” Elizabeth averred softly.
“Y-you know?” Georgiana stammered.
“I do, and not only does it not change how I feel about you, but I lay the blame on him and his paramour. While you should not have agreed to the elopement, you were but a girl of fifteen manipulated by a man almost twice your age who was skilled in the art. He did this with the assistance of your companion, who was charged with your protection. That woman violated the trust your brother placed in her in the worst possible way!” Elizabeth stated as she looked right at the young girl so her new friend could see the truth of her words.
“I have felt so guilty; what you say helps me very much,” Georgiana said as she threw her arms around Elizabeth. “Are you the only one who knows?”
“No Gigi, everyone knows the basics, except my sister Lydia, who came very close to being seduced by Mr. Wickham like some others were in Meryton. Your brother gave me a detailed account. As you can see, there is not one in this house who judges you for your error,” Elizabeth assured Georgiana.
“I thank you, Lizzy. I wish I had your wit then I would not have been taken in by that blackguard,” Georgiana insisted.
“But I was taken in by him. Not in the same way as you…” Elizabeth explained all to her new friend.
As much as she hated that Wickham had seduced some girls in Meryton, it made Georgiana feel better about herself to know that someone as intelligent as Elizabeth Bennet could be taken in by Wickham’s lies.
It was a turning point for Georgiana Darcy; it was the last day she blamed herself and started to move forward.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
William Collins was not happy. He had not budgeted for a stay at an inn on the way home, and he did not enjoy spending his money. His father had drummed, and sometimes beaten, the need for austerity into him from a young age. He reluctantly handed over the coin at the coaching inn.
Pursuant to his inquiry, the landlord informed Collins there would be a stage departing in the morning which would take him as far as Bromley. If he was lucky, a conveyance from Rosings Park would be there, but if not, he would have no choice but to hire a gig.
His greatest problem was determining how to explain to his patroness why he was returning to Hunsford with no wife, or even a fiancée.
Disappointing Lady Catherine was something he abhorred.
He would have to think long and hard to come up with a plausible excuse for failing to satisfy her charge to him.
He was sure she would be thankful of the letter he had sent her about her nephew, which should be in her hand by the time return to his parsonage.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Charlotte waited at Lucas Lodge until she received conformation Collins had departed before informing her family what the coward had attempted to do once Matilda withdrew from the betrothal.
Franklin and John wanted to make sure he was gone, hoping he was not as they desired to beat him within an inch of his life, or mayhap beyond.
“I assure you, Brothers, that he is gone. One of my betrothed’s grooms followed the stage for five miles and he did not alight, so he is on the way back to the bosom of his patroness,” Charlotte calmed her brothers.
“I wonder what pack of lies he will tell her,” Sir William surmised.
“It will make no difference…” Charlotte told her family who the Countess' cousin was and about the express on the way to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
“No matter what he tells her, he has mere days left as a clergyman. Given the viciousness we have seen bubble to the surface, I think we all need to be vigilant. A wounded animal can be a dangerous one.”
There was no disagreement expressed. As the family dispersed to rest before preparing for the ball, Charlotte made a mental note to recommend the same to her betrothed when she saw him.